


Kate and Calum

by mtrainpanda



Category: 5SecondsofSummer
Genre: 5SOS - Freeform, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-12
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-13 12:09:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5707543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mtrainpanda/pseuds/mtrainpanda





	Kate and Calum

Three years in a row without moving, without the fear of losing people dear to you – that’s the short-term dream Kate was in until one day lightning stroke and woke her up from it.  
She lived in Sydney, in a very pretty house in the outskirts of town, after five times of moving from one place to another and losing friends. The last time she moved she promised herself she wouldn’t get too attached to people, just because of the fear of losing them.  
But, ever since she’s moved there, she has been lonely and she had about enough. If there had to be a borderline, that didn’t mean that she isn’t supposed to try hanging out with people her age.  
One day she was at home, doing a chore for her mom and kept an eye on Lucy, her dog who was tied up in her dog house in the backyard. Kate took her eyes off the glass back door and when she turned back, Lucy was gone.  
On the other end of this whole story, is Calum, a bassist for a world-famous band 5 Seconds of Summer. When Lucy the retriever ran away she actually got caught up in his backyard while he was napping on his hammock.  
As he was swinging slowly left and right, something swung him so hard he nearly fell off of the hammock. Then, he felt someone or something’s tongue on his hand. Lucy was licking him, trying to wake him up.  
“What…Oh, hello there.”  
He said with a smile as he saw the dog stare at him wagging its tail. He saw the collar and read her name. Just then someone’s voice was heard, yelling after the dog.  
“Lucy…Lucy where….Oh.”  
Kate’s voice trailed off as she saw Calum by Lucy’s side.  
And the moment where she promised herself no strings attached, seemed forgotten, seemed like it had never happened in the first place.  
“So, this…um Lucy is your dog?”  
Calum asked, as he started blushing.  
“Yeah, I’m Kate by the way, thanks for stalling her.”  
Kate replied as she grabbed Lucy’s collar. She noticed how the rope that was tied to it was ripped out and only a small piece was stuck between her neck and the collar. She took it out and scolded Lucy for running off, but not too much.  
“Stalling? Um, yeah sure no problem.”  
Calum got back in his hammock but still kept his eye on Kate and her dog. When he saw that they just went in the yard next door, he nearly killed himself trying to get up from the hammock.  
“You live there?!”  
His voice cracked in a surprised tone. He never knew that he actually had neighbors, and who’d blame him when he’s barely been home properly.  
“Yes, for three years now. Hey, you never told me your name though.”  
Kate said, staring from the other side of her yard’s stone fence.  
“Calum.”  
Kate tied Lucy back up and gave her some snacks. Pretty soon, her father showed up and the first thing he did was check the mailbox.  
“Nothing yet, good.”  
He mumbled as he walked towards the front door. He is an office worker, and his wife Diane is a florist. They’ve never earned a lot, but for their way of life it’s always been enough.  
However, lately they’ve been struggling without Kate’s knowledge. They’ve kept dodging the mortgage for a couple of months and they’ve kept receiving notes about it as well. It’s why they always check the mailbox, so that Kate doesn’t do it and find out.  
Her mom, Diane came back a few hours afterwards and everything was going good. Later that evening, after dinner was done Kate was supposed to go up in her room, but a tap on the back door changed her mind. Lucy was asking for attention, so Kate let her in and started stroking her gently.  
“Don’t worry girl, mom and dad won’t yell at you as long as you’re quiet and clean.”  
She said smiling at the nearly asleep dog. Lucy has been Kate’s dog since she was a yearling, her family had saved her from a pound and she was Kate’s birthday gift when she turned 16. Now with 20 full years and 4 dog years, they’ve made a bond that nobody can break not even her parents.  
Little did they know what was coming their way though.  
The next day, the parents were off to work again and Lucy and Kate were on their own. It was a nice day so Lucy dragged her leash over to Kate on the couch and wagged her tail. She wanted a walk with her owner.  
“Alright, I guess we can go out.”  
Kate said as she grabbed the house keys from the light stand. She attached the leash to Lucy and they both went out.  
There’s a park near the residential area where their home is, so that’s where Kate thought it would be best for a dog to go on a walk. When they got there, she took the leash off of her and let her roam freely around, knowing she’d come back.  
As Kate was sitting alone, staring at people walking around with kids, pets and what not someone sat next to her without her seeing. It was Calum.  
“Hey there!”  
His voice startled her and she quickly turned to face him.  
“Calum? Hi.”  
She seemed rather uninterested in further conversation, obviously her borderline-rule was back on and she tried to stick to it.  
“What some of this cotton candy? It can color your teeth, see?”  
He grinned at her with blue teeth, like a smurf. Kate just burst in laughs and took some candy off from the stick.  
“Thanks, Smurfette.”  
She jokingly said, as she turned her teeth blue as well.  
“So, you here alone?”  
He kept the conversation going, it looked like he wanted to do so.  
“Nope, with Lucy. Dammit, she’s gone again…”  
Lucy had gone further than Kate’s eyes could see and she got scared. Just as she got up to take a look around something nearly ran her over.  
“Scrappy…”  
Calum said as he picked his small dog up. And of course, afterwards he apologized for what almost could’ve happened.  
“That’s your dog?”  
Kate asked after petting the little guy in his hands.  
“Yeah, he’s mine. Say hi to the lady dude, be polite. Shake.”  
The dog put his small, rather fat paw out to shake Kate’s hand. She took it and shook it like she’d shake a person’s hand. Officially they were introduced to each other. Then Scrappy started licking her hand, he seemed to really like her.  
“He doesn’t even lick me that much. Dude you need a girl from your own kind, you know you can’t mate with her right?”  
Calum talked to the dog as if it were a human as it kept trying to leap from his arms in Kate’s lap.  
“Wow, is he in love with me? Listen, buddy I like you but I’m not your type, trust me.”  
Calum started laughing and the dog started barking, as if it was laughing as well.  
After all that, Kate got up from the bench again and was off to find Lucy, leaving Calum and Scrappy alone.  
After a while, she saw Lucy by the cotton candy stand wagging her tail for a bite.  
“Lucy, God! I’m sorry, sir…”  
She apologized a dozen times to the stand owner as he kept saying she did nothing wrong, just stared at the candy and took a small bite.  
“So you found her.”  
A voice came from the back of her head. Calum again. It started to seem like he was following her. Or, maybe the fact that he saw Lucy before at the stand where he got his candy from made him go there.  
“Yeah, thankfully she’s no troublemaker.”  
Kate said with relief. Then, they both went home.  
Night came again, and once again she was on the dinner table with her parents. The same story, on a different day. After she was done with her meal, she went upstairs and started getting ready for bed. However, things got a bit rough between her parents and the yelling made her want to check on what went on downstairs. She stood right at the ending of the wall on the staircase as she could see from there clearly below.  
“Diane, please….you know we have no choice. We either sell the house or her.”  
The father, Harold was walking around the room, with a worried face. His wife was standing near a vase and observed him.  
“Honey, they’ve been together since she was 16. Do you really think she’ll just let go of her like that?”  
Her parents were discussing what they’d do to cover up their debts and they only had two options so far, one was to sell the house and move out again and the other was sell the dog to cover at least the critical ones for the time being. Obviously, the mother didn’t want any, especially not the second idea.  
“Diane, there’s no other way. Unless I miraculously get promoted or you….I really don’t know. I love Lucy too but…”  
Kate finally understood everything. She ran down the stairs, straight through the back door to Lucy, in tears.  
“I won’t let them take you, no!”  
She grabbed her in her embrace tightly, and was crying quietly.  
On the other side over at the Hood residence, someone had to take the trash out, and Calum made his sister Mali Koa do it. However, he felt bad about it so he went to at least lend a hand. When they got out to throw the trash in the trash can in the back his sister saw Kate and nudged her brother’s shoulder to take a look as well.  
“Isn’t she your new friend Cal?”  
She asked curiously.  
“Yeah, so….Oh man… “  
He saw how she was crying, sprung on Lucy so he jumped the not so high fence and went over to her.  
“Hey, what’s wrong?”  
He said as he took both her hands into his, and tried wiping her tears away.  
“Hi….How did you even….”  
Kate had no idea he saw her, she was surprised by his appearance, but then she was also glad that he came. The lack of human company in these kinds of moments has always been bad for her.  
“What happened, why are you crying?”  
Calum was worried, he didn’t know why the girl who was so cheerful just a few hours ago now was crying her eyes out in front of him.  
“My parents have debts to pay, but no money. Their salary is barely enough for a decent life, and now this thing for the house. Dad wants to sell her!”  
She yelled out as her head fell on Calum’s fists.  
“Her?”  
Calum picked her head up and gave her a hug.  
“Lucy.”  
She barely spoke her name out. She couldn’t bare the thought of losing the one friend that could always stay with her no matter where they went. She just couldn’t even think of it.  
“Oh man….We won’t let that happen, trust me okay? “  
He knew how It felt to be attached to someone or something like that, since he had the same bond with Scrappy and he’d never forgive himself if he lost him.  
“The other option is for us to move. I don’t want that either. We’re finally in one place for a longer time, where I actually like to be, and even though I have zero friends I still don’t wanna go.”  
She said, still in tears, crying on his shoulder.  
“Zero friends? And what am I, a chair?”  
He said, trying to cheer her up. Warm breath came on his shoulder, he could feel her smile briefly, but then it disappeared.  
“We’ll find a way. You’ll see.”  
He stayed with her for a while longer and then he went back home, leaving her in a bit lighter mood than before, at least.  
The next few days, all she was doing was looking for a way to save her dog and her home. Her mom had to stay home from work because she didn’t feel really well so she asked Kate to run an errant, buy some groceries. She went further in the neighborhood this time where the so called center was with the shops and on one tree there was a poster, for a dog show. The grand prize was a trophy, and 10.000 dollars. Kate’s face lit up for a second but, then she realized Lucy isn’t trained for a dog show, which was a week away. However, she went to ask around about it.  
At the grocery store, the salesgirl told her about it, explained to her that she needs a dog to enter and that there is a special place in the park to train if she made up her mind to go through with it.  
Kate bought the things she needed, and told Gale, the salesgirl she’d consider it and took a poster and went home.  
She kept reading the prize out loud, as if it would make her change her mind.  
“Lucy, this is our ticket out of this mess. If you listen to me for real, we might pull it off, but….We need help. I don’t know the first thing about dog training….Maybe…maybe he knows?”  
She took Lucy and the poster over to Calum’s house. She rang the doorbell three times and just when she was about to leave, someone opened the door. It was Mali.  
“Hi, um…is Calum home?”  
Kate asked peeking from over Mali’s shoulder.  
“Yeah, I’m his sister Mali Koa, nice to meet you. Wanna come in? “  
Mali opened the door completely and let her in. She went upstairs to call Calum as Kate sat down with Lucy in the living room.  
“Hey, look who has her smile back! And look who has her wag back.”  
Calum walked in the room smiling. He was happy to see Kate was better and so was Lucy. Lucy nearly ran him over, she was too happy to see her new friend again.  
“Lucy….Sorry. She really gets overexcited when she sees you. Okay, so I got this when I went to the grocery store. But I need your help.”  
Calum took the poster from her hands and when he read it his face lit up. But as fast as it lit up, it also turned into an unsure face.  
“I can help. But we need one more person for this job. Michael.”  
He figured, since Michael is an animal geek he might know a thing or two on dog training or at least know someone who knows about it, better than the three of them combined. He took his phone out of his pocket and dialed him. Of course, it took three tries before he actually picked up.  
“As usual, noon and you’re still asleep?”  
Calum asked, teasing his mate a bit before he went down to business.  
“Sorry man, I was up till late last night. And no, I wasn’t…I was playing a game.”  
His voice trailed off, but he finished his sentence, before Calum spoke again.  
“Listen, I need your help. There’s this dog show going on and I want to help my neighbor Kate train her dog for it. Any ideas?”  
He just heard a loud smack from Michael’s end and a giggle.  
“Sorry, I hit my head on the bookshelf, I knew it was a bad idea to put it there. That’s the last time I take advice from you Hemmings. Anyways, about your problem, I can surely help. My poodle has won a few of those, of course thanks to mom but beside her I learned what a dog needs to do to win. So I’m in!”  
Calum smiled, thanked him and told him to get over to his place. After he hung up he told Kate the good news.  
“We might get out of this mess after all girl.”

Michael came over with Kenobi and together with Calum and Kate and her dog they all went to the training area in the park.  
“Alright, so the first thing you need to show them is a clean nice dog. You need a nice collar, a bath and a brush and you’re all set.”  
Michael started explaining to Kate as Kenobi went on to digging holes in the playground’s dirt.  
“Uh, dude your poodle…”  
Calum pointed to the hole the poodle had made and Michael just ran after him to stop him from making some more.  
“Sorry…Kenobi you dope!”  
He dragged him back and made sure he was not going to cause any more problems.  
“Okay, so as I was saying….Next they want to see tricks. So these are all of them. Just use crackers if she gets it right as a reward, that’ll keep her going and will give her a motive.”  
Kate took a cracker from Michael and went to the first trick spot. It was a wooden plank Lucy had to walk on. Lucy was right next to her.  
“Alright. Now I want you to come to me. Come on.”

She stood on the other end of the plank and Lucy got up and went right to her. She earned one snack on the spot.  
“Alright, you’re good.”  
Calum and Michael were pleased it was all working out.

For days Kate was teaching Lucy the way Michael told her, and she made her do every bit of that course perfectly.  
Finally, the day of the competition came. A lot of people had come to watch it and she wanted to think she’d have fun, but knowing why she was actually doing this kind of made that thought go further back in the line.  
“Next, we have Lucy Moreno, and owner Kate Moreno!”  
The judge called out their names and it was time for them to show what they were working on.  
Kate had given Lucy a brush and a bath and had put her best collar on her. They were as ready as they could ever be. She took a deep breath and walked onto the training course lawn with Lucy.  
“Alright girl, go!”  
Lucy started going step by step on the show off part of the competition. Their turn was done in two minutes time, and right after them, the entire round ended. They were one of the lucky few to carry on to the next round. Calum and Michael were in the audience box, in the front row. As they were observing people, Michael just cursed out loud.  
“What the hell is the matter with you?”  
Calum just turned around to see why he reacted that way. He knew him far too well, and knew that even a spill of soda could make him curse.  
“I forgot the race part. Dammit!”  
He said as he slapped his knee in anger.  
“Racing?! She didn’t train racing…Oh man. We’re so done for.”  
Calum started to feel fear, he now started thinking of how they might lose, of how he might lose her.  
The trick part was also done, and the one part they were not prepared for, the racing was up next. They proceeded to that round as well. It was the last one, and Calum and Michael were praying Lucy could pull it off.  
“What is this now?”  
Kate stared at the two in the audience, since she knew they were there and gave them a what the hell look.  
They were called out on the race track and she had to place Lucy in position.  
“Just do what the others do but do it faster.”

That’s all Kate told Lucy, as if she was a human and she understood. She is a very smart dog, and knew exactly what her friend was telling her.  
The round began and the owners were now at the finish line waiting for their dogs to come there. At the beginning a pitbull was leading the race, but Lucy was slowly catching up. It was neck-a-neck at one point until Lucy beat him to it and ran through the red tape first.  
“Oh my God!”  
Kate screamed as she saw Lucy run towards her. She hugged her and couldn’t let her go.  
“You did it, oh my God.”  
From behind two faces were waiting anxiously to congratulate the winners. Calum and Michael both hugged her and Lucy and were too happy that despite the fact they missed a couple of training tips, they still pulled it off.  
She was given a trophy and the reward money. As they both came down from the number one square set Kate twisted her leg and nearly fell down, but Calum was still down there and caught her hand.  
“So, you get to stay.”  
He said, putting his hand on her waist.  
“Yeah, I get to stay.”  
She replied, her eyes sparkling, as his breath touched her skin.  
“Then, I can do this.”  
He pulled her closer and kissed her. He was scared at first, because of how reserved she was but he liked her from day one.  
Kate didn’t have to have a boundary anymore, she didn’t have to fear she’d have to leave friends behind again, she learned that with a little faith amazing things can happen.  
Later that night, when her parents were home, they were about to tell her to choose between her home or her dog but she just put an envelope in her dad’s hand as he looked at her weirdly.  
“We won a dog show. That’s for you.”  
Harold opened the envelope and when he saw how much money there was in there he nearly fainted.  
“Oh my God, this will ensure our stay for ten more years, wow.”  
Her mom took a look and couldn’t believe it either. Just then someone rang on the door. Kate went to open up and it was Calum.  
“Did you tell them?”  
He said, peeking over her shoulder to see her folks.  
“Yeah, I did. We’re staying.”  
She said, grinning from ear to ear.  
“Good, then I can take you out, perfect.”

Lightning stroke alright, but it wasn’t to predict a stormy weather. In fact, it destroyed Kate’s fears and she finally felt free to enjoy herself, to enjoy her life, without having to worry whether she’d lose someone ever again.


End file.
